Laptop issues -result

[Harry Bloomfield]

Just to recap - Over past few weeks my W10 Acer laptop had more and more frequently locked up, no mouse movement, no response to ctrl+ Alt

• del, only holding the power button down for ten seconds to reboot it brought it back. Manually taking control of virtual memory and upping the amount, seemed to fix it, it did, but not for long - so nothing else for it but to open it up....

Nothing was socketed, apart from cables to accessories like the keyboard, mouse pad, a USB + memory slot and wifi module. No socketed chips at all, 8Gb of ram, none socketed and no expansion slots.

I managed to break the socket clamp catch for the tape type ribbon cable for the USB + memory socket, trying to work out how to release it

- It was a matter of easing the keyboard a little way, to begin reaching in to unplug things, some had a catch clamp which pushed in, others like this had a clamp which needed lifting 90 deg to release.

I dusted the entire PCB, case and air ducts out thoughroughly with a paint brush, then reassembled it, with no expectation that the lockup was fixed. The damaged socket I partially botched by using a bit of sweetie wrapper to wedge it and apply contact pressure.

No more lockups in the several days since then, despite changing it back to W10 default virtual memory management - that USB + memory socket has power, but no data, so obviously the cable has pulled partially out/ not making full contact, in my rush to get it back together.

My best guess as to the problem - maybe a bit of loose solder or conductive dust shorter something out. The brushing cleared it out.

[T i m]

<snip>

A note on that, it's recommended to use a natural bristle brush or a conductive (carbon?) one to reduce the risk of generating static electricity firing the process. I use a 1" quality badger hair brush and try to hold the metal ferrule whilst using it (so that I act as a conductive path to earth for any static).

<snip>

The classic issues are a blocked vent at the exhaust (I've extracted a

4mm thick layer of what looks like felt many-a-time), the fan fins themselves or a blocked input vent grille (less common as many have multiple air input paths). That and / or the thermal paste drying out (and so needing re pasting).

I have also recovered the odd mounting screw that has fallen out and then lodged itself somewhere subtle but they generally rattle about as you move the laptop around (and sometimes also tapping it to dislodge it again). I have found loose solder balls but they don't generally seem to cause any issues.

Well done for giving it a go and welcome to the broken clip thing. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Brian Gaff]

Hmm, with surface mounted stuff there are lots of stories like this. I'm assuming you are going to fix the cable, but before you do, give it a good test, as what you describe may also be due to a poor joint and moving and flexing stuff has simply made it good again for a while till corrosion and or muck starts to affect it again. I hate those tiny flimsy connectors. It was almost better in the bad old days where these ribbons simply plugged into a tine type edge connector, as often there was enough cable to cut it and shove it back in!

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

You can wash out those foam filters quite successfully just as you can in vacuums. In the early days static was a worse problem than now as most of the schottky devices now have diode protection built in. Obviously though you do not want huge build up. There are limits. Brian

[T i m]

<snip>

What foam filters Brian?

Cheers, T i m

[Paddy Dzell]

Harry Bloomfield brought next idea :

Three main reasons why a computer runs slow and/or locks up - viruses, hard drive on way out, heat.

I'll guarantee that the fan and airway was at least partially blocked up causing heat buildup, so your brushing and cleaning sorted it :D